27 Feb 2012

A few days ago V and Baby Z made this big drawing on the floor. It was actually a layout for a game of their own that succeeded.Pre neki dan V i beba Z su nacrtali veliki crtež na podu. To je zapravo bio poligon za igru koja je usledila, a koju su sami izmislili.

3 Feb 2012

I am a strong opponent of coloring books and cookie-cutters! (Although using them can make some really beautiful cookies!) And here's why:

Art and art expression of children and adults are different. While adults' art is mainly oriented to the final product, children's art, is oriented to the process. Very young children don't care much what their drawing or painting will look like. Therefore, they are free to experiment and play with different approaches when they create. In this freedom and spontaneity is the charm and beauty of children's creativity. Burden on the finished product, which adults are fond of, is what restrains the free creative process. However, adults often observe and criticize the children's artistic expression from this adult point of view: from the end product - usually meaning - realistic representation. This can cause great harm to children, most in terms of confidence and further desire to create. Even if the child itself did not care for the end-product, constant insistence of adults on it - will make him start seeking it in his drawings.

Coloring books are, precisely, such a product of adults that celebrates a realistic depiction and reduce children's art activity to a single "correct" way: neat and precise coloring of a surface inside the given outline - with a strong request not to draw over it! An interesting request for a three-year old for example! It is so obvious that there is no room here for expressive doodles that are so characteristic for kids of this age. Should I mention that the accuracy and precision are not inherent in the visual arts! Think, for example - Jackson Pollock or Van Gogh. How neat and precise are their pictures?

Jean Van't Hul from the blog The Artful Parent writes about the reasons to avoid coloring books for children in her article for Babble and says:

·Coloring books teach children to be passive about their art. Rather than drawing something themselves, they are coloring in adult-drawn images. What kind of message this sends to children?

·Coloring books teach children to compare their art to an adult’s. They teach them that adults draw "better", that children do not know how to draw well, and that they are good enough just to color in other people's drawings.

·Coloring books set children up for failure. Coloring books impose a rule to color within the lines - and what if the line is crossed? It is treated as an error and failure. This unapproprieted request for children sets a sense of failure that discourages them for further creation.

·Scribbling is linked to future literacy. The more toddlers scribble and draw, the easier it is for them to learn to write later. As toddlers scribble, they learn to make all the shapes necessary to write the alphabet. Coloring inside predetermined lines doesn’t allow this to happen.

·Coloring books prevent children to present their personal interpreatation of the world.

Similarly, "dot to dot" drawings (in which the child makes a drawing by drawing lines from dot to dot that are marked by numbers), cookie-cutters, sand molds, stamps with cartoon characters and similar 'so called creative' toys - actually have a negative impact on children's artistic expression and should be avoided.

However, I think that one should not make too much drama out of the whole thing, and in order to avoid a counter-effect and longing - which bans of any kind can produce - I allow our winter cookie-cutters to periodically visit our kitchen. If those are not offered to children as the only form of creation, but only occasionally and in special circumstances, then, I guess they can't be so harmful. Or am I wrong?

As an art educator I believe that art (specially open-ended art) is very important for kids. I also believe that kids need play almost as much as they need air. This is a space where I write about things that I make for my kids (ages 6 and 3) to play with, about things that I make and art activities that I do together with them. If you wish to contact me by e-mail you can do it at veravec@gmail.com